“Although much has been written about the Nuremberg trials, this book is original in form and content. . . . Such material as this book presents unsensational and without glib generalizations, fills a definite gap ”
—New York Times
“The author lets the defendants talk for themselves and intrudes himself into the picture very little. The result is a mass of quotations that have the phantasmagoric quality of a sinister "Through the Looking-Glass", which reasoning and logic run backyard
—The New Yorker

How could any human being take part in the Nazi, atrocities?
This book reveals the innermost thoughts of the Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg trials, exposes the psychological motivations of the men who were responsible for Dachau and Buchenwald.
With scientific dispassion and thorough comprehension, Dr. Gilbert probes the day-by-day reactions of the criminals themselves to the trial proceedings. Here is their testimony. Here are their off-the-record opinions of Hitler and of each other. Here are their feuds and their desperate maneuvering to disassociate themselves from Nazi guilt and the Third Reich’s defeat.
Dr. Gilbert’s thorough knowledge of German, his deliberately informal approach, his complete freedom of access at all times to Goering, Hess, von Papen, Streicher and the rest give his remarkable history an intimacy and insight that is unequaled anywhere else in the literature of the Nuremberg trials.
Nuremberg Diary is Gustave M. Gilbert's account of interviews he conducted during the trials of Nazi leaders, including Hermann Göring, involved in WWII & the Holocaust. He served as a prison psychologist in Nuremberg, where he had close contact with those on trial. The text is the verbatim notes he took immediately after having conversations with the prisoners, information backed by essays he asked them to write about themselves. Parts of the diary was published in '47 & the whole thing was published in '61, just before Adolf Eichmann's Jerusalem trial.
Excerpt: "Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy & it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship./Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, & in the United States only Congress can declare wars./Göring: Oh, that is all well & good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, & denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism & exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Contents
INTRODUCTION—THE INDICTED TRIAL DIARY, 1945-1946    9
1.    THE PROSECUTION OPENS    37
2.    CHRISTMAS RECESS IN JAIL      80
3.    THE ANGLO-AMERICAN PROSECUTION CONCLUDES    97
4.    THE FRENCH PROSECUTION      117
5.    THE RUSSIAN PROSECUTION       128
6.    GOERING’S DEFENSE     172
7.    HESS’S DEFENSE     200
8.    RIBBENTROP’S DEFENSE    204
9.    KEITEL’S DEFENSE      218
10.    KALTENBRUNNER’S DEFENSE      234
11.    ROSENBERG’S DEFENSE    245
12.    FRANK’S DEFENSE      253
13.    FRICK’S DEFENSE     267
14.    STREICHER’S DEFENSE    276
15.    SCHACHT’S DEFENSE    282
16.    DOENITZ’ DEFENSE       298
17.    RAEDER’S DEFENSE    305
18.    VON SCHIRACH’S DEFENSE    318
19.    JODL’S DEFENSE      330
20.    VON PAPEN’S DEFENSE    348
21.    SPEER’S DEFENSE      361
22.    THE SUMMATIONS      370
EPILOGUE—THE CONDEMNED    391
Appendix I—The Judgment     398
Appendix II—Chronology      410

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